Will Power held off Tony Kanaan to secure pole position for this weekend's IndyCar race at Milwaukee.

The current championship leader was the ninth driver to head out for his run, unloading laps of 168.719mph and 169.811mph to earn a two-lap average of 169.292mph; considerably faster than the speeds seen in practice earlier in the day.

"Definitely wasn't expecting those sorts of speeds," Power admitted. "But the car was very solid, and I had the information from the two team-mates before me about how the balance was changing.

"I wasn't expecting to be on pole but it's good to be at the front."

Kanaan's two-lap average was 168.662mph, and while he lost some time trying to go flat through Turn 1 on his second lap ("I'd seen Will's time and thought that was the only way I'd be able to beat him"), he didn't think he had quite enough for pole.

"I think we've got a pretty good chance [in the race]," he said.

"We've just got to do our thing. We've been showing how quick we've been everywhere, we just need to get some luck on our side."

Ganassi driver Kanaan did succeed in denying Penske a lockout of the front row by bumping Juan Pablo Montoya back to third, leaving Ryan Briscoe and Josef Newgarden to round out the top five.

It was a tough session for two of the championship aspirants. Helio Castroneves paid the penalty for drawing one of the earlier qualifying slots and ended up eighth, while Andretti Autosport missed the set-up completely on Ryan Hunter-Reay's car.

"I wouldn't be surprised if I'm third from last," he said during the session.

It wasn't that bad - he will start from fourth-last alongside team-mate Carlos Munoz, leaving Marco Andretti as the team's top qualifier in ninth.

James Hinchcliffe, whose car needed to be repaired following a crash in second practice, will line up 13th.

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